Biasotti: Durant's historic season overshadowed by LeBron

File: Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant, center, holds his head as he sits on the bench after leaving the court in fourth quarter of an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, in Salt Lake City. The Jazz won 109-94. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Kevin Durant is way, way down the list of people who need your sympathy. He’s young, rich, universally liked, and very nearly the greatest basketball player on the planet.

But, if you finish thinking of all the truly unfortunate people in the world, you might save a nanosecond of sympathy for Durant. He has the misfortune to be in his prime at the same time as LeBron James, and right now he’s wrapping up one of the great second-best seasons in league history.

Durant’s shooting and scoring was truly historic. He shot 50.9 percent from the field, 41.3 percent from 3-point land and 90.7 percent from the line, while scoring 28.1 points per game. Since the 3-point shot was introduced in 1979, only Larry Bird in 1987-88 has scored more and shot better in all three categories.

Durant’s season has something else in common with Bird’s in 1988: neither one is going to be MVP. Bird lost out to Michael Jordan, and Durant will almost certainly come in second to the greatest player since Jordan.

LeBron isn’t just a player without a weakness. He’s a player for whom almost every aspect of the game is a strength.

The only thing he doesn’t do at an elite level is shoot free throws; his 75.3 percent from the line was exactly the league average this year. Beyond that, there are only strengths.

On a team with two other All-Stars, he’s the best scorer, rebounder, passer and defender. On offense, he’s equally comfortable running the point or setting up in the post; on defense, he can guard Chris Paul as capably as he can guard Blake Griffin.

For the first eight years of his career — seven in Cleveland and the first one in Miami — there was a set of best practices to defending James. If you packed your defense into the lane, you could goad him into taking jump shots, which he would usually miss.

There’s no book on stopping him anymore. A look at NBA.com/stats, the league’s fantastic new advanced stats site, makes it clear that he’s now a good shooter from literally everywhere on the court.

LeBron shot 40.6 perfect from 3-point range this year, good for 27th among the 132 players who have shot more than 100 three-pointers. He shoots better from behind the arc than J.J. Redick, Ryan Anderson, and plenty of other guys who make their living with their outside shot.

From mid-range — outside the paint but inside the 3-point line, LeBron’s kryptonite until last season — he finished at 43.2 percent. That’s 28th among the 96 players with 200 or more mid-range attempts.

The area inside the paint, but outside of the restricted area — basically, between 5 and 15 feet from the basket — is a no-man’s-land for a lot of players. It’s too close to ever be wide open, but too far for a dunk or a layup. The league average for these shots is 38.3 percent. James shot 49.4 percent, sixth among the 99 players with 100 or more attempts.

James is unstoppable when he gets to the rim. He shot 76 percent from the restricted area, the best in the league among regular players. He got to the rim more than almost anyone, too; his 541 attempts were third in the NBA and first among non-centers.

So you’ve got a player who finishes at the rim better than Blake Griffin, shoots 3s better than Klay Thompson and is a better mid-range shooter than Kobe Bryant. He’s also one of the best passers in basketball, a solid rebounder, and the best all-around defender in the league.

Sorry, Kevin Durant. You’re a great player. But unless either LeBron or the voters get very bored, the MVP is going to be locked up for a few more years.

The other regular-season awards are more interesting. My choices for a few of them are listed below. Since I’m not actually a voter, I have no obligation to decide on the ones I don’t care much about, like Most Improved Player or Sixth Man of the Year.

Defensive Player of the Year: Marc Gasol, Memphis. The Grizzlies had the second-best defense in the league, and Gasol was their anchor. He’s not exactly fast, but he’s stunningly nimble for a 7-foot, 270-pound center. His mind is even quicker than his feet. Sometimes it seems like he’s watched the game already on some magical time-traveling DVR, and memorized what the offense is about to do on every play.

Rookie of the Year: Damian Lillard, Portland. Lillard will win this easily. In my mind, though, he barely edges out New Orleans forward Anthony Davis.

Davis was been better when he’s been on the floor. Prorated to 36 minutes per game, he averaged 16.9 points, 10.2 rebounds and 2.2 blocks, numbers that were pretty similar to Tim Duncan in his rookie year.

Lillard helped his team more, for the simple reason that he played more: 1,243 more minutes than Davis, or 26 full games’ worth.

Coach of the Year: Gregg Popovich, San Antonio. This might as well go to Popovich every year. His Spurs are consistently the best coached, most disciplined team in the league. This was another ho-hum Spurs season: Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili have all missed time with injuries, and the team still had the third-best record in the league.